This is How the Birth of Leeland Colter Jon Came About (+ printable hospital bag checklist)

I know, I used the same title for Annalise's birth blog, but I just couldn't think of a more engaging title to my blog. And hey, it's been 2 years, so I'm allowed to recycle, right?

It's been a whole week since our sweet boy entered this world! Time goes by so fast! I was lamenting this morning as I was holding him that I'll probably blink and he'll be 2, like Annalise (insert sobbing mommy emoji here).

Anyways, for those interested, here is his birth story! But it's also for me to not forget. I think now that I'll remember every detail, but I know I won't.

The Story

I guess things really started to change around 37 weeks. I could tell there was a lot more pressure and that he was probably moving down a lot more in my pelvis. Being the midwife I am, I tried checking my cervix but my belly was too much in the way to know for sure.

At 38 weeks I went to my prenatal appointment and she said I was 4cm, 90% effaced and baby was at 0 station (very well engaged!) and had a bulging bag of waters below his head (all good signs for labor). The midwife asked if I wanted my membranes swept (basically a really aggressive cervical exam) which can often get labor started. This is how I got labor started with Annalise too. My mom wasn't planning to come until Saturday, and since she was my babysitter for Annalise I decided not to. BUT, I started having lots of contractions anyways, just from the cervical exam. My mom got really nervous about it so decided to drive down the next morning (Thursday) instead of waiting for the Saturday flight. That night I had contractions about 7 minutes apart for almost 4 hours. They started to kind of taper off at which point I fell asleep for about an hour and then woke up to them being 2-3 minutes apart. I decided if they had been going for an hour I'd wake Bryce up. At 50 minutes they basically completely stopped. I still had a really hard time sleeping so basically only got about 3 hours of unrestful sleep.

Mom arrived at around 1:00pm Thursday and it was so nice to have her help with Annalise because I was exhausted. I thought I'd probably go into labor Thursday night but I basically had no contractions (which was kind of weird because I normally have quite a few contractions at night anyways). Needless to say, I got THE BEST night sleep Thursday night. Like, best night in months! I only woke up to use the bathroom like 3 times and felt so refreshed in the morning.

Friday morning I woke up and I just knew, today was the day to have a baby. I called my office and asked if they would sweep my membranes, since they had offered Wednesday, and now mom was there. They said I could come at 1:00pm. So mom and I went and did some shopping, and got Chick fil-a for lunch. We decided to pack up the truck so we'd be ready in case I went into labor like right after they swept my membranes. With COVID restrictions Bryce hasn't been able to come to any of my prenatal appointments but I was telling the medical assistant that I made my husband drive me and he was just sitting in the truck and she told me that morning they actually changed policies and we could have someone with us now. So he was able to be with me for the visit, which was so nice. The midwife started out by saying, maybe I'd go into labor this weekend...etc... but then she did my cervical exam and membrane sweep and then she thought, well maybe tonight (I was about 5-6cm at that point). And then after talking about how fast my labor was with Annalise, she said, "do you want to just go eat and come back?" We thought that was pretty funny. She talked with me about all the midwives that were on call over the weekend. The midwife that was currently on call until 7:00pm was the one we had our first visit with and the visit Wednesday with. I REALLY liked her but she only does call super part time so I figured there was no way she would be the one when I went into labor (spoil alert - she was!). Anyways, we agreed I'd go home and rest a bit, since we are only 10 minutes away and whenever contractions started I could just come back.

I got home around 2:30pm. Laid in bed and started having contractions at 2:40pm. They were definitely way more painful than any of the others had been and I couldn't talk or walk through them. So after 3 of them I told Bryce we better go. I had a few more on the way to the hospital, but the entire time the nurse was admitting me I didn't have a single one! I was kind of nervous they would send me home. She said she'd page the midwife and ask if I could be admitted and get my epidural. Thankfully, they were fine with me having my epidural! By time I got my epidural I had only had about 12 contractions, which was such a beautiful thing. The epidural was perfect placement and the anesthesiologist did an excellent job and it was virtually painless. Then, I had to get a COVID test. Which was not painless. And was awful. And I hated it. They had to swirl that swab around for 10 seconds. 10 SECONDS! Worst part of my labor experience by far.

After I got my epidural I started having more regular contractions and at 5:30pm my midwife came to break my water. She said I was still around 5-6cm. We agreed to wait around 30 minutes to see how my body and Leeland responded to my water breaking and see if I needed pitocin to help with contractions. She told me to just let her know when I started feeling rectal pressure. Bryce was hungry and was talking about going to find some dinner but with the next contraction I definitely felt rectal pressure. He was still talking about dinner and after 3 more contractions my rectal pressure was getting pretty intense. I told him that there was no way I was completely dilated yet, but I'd feel more comfortable if the midwife came back to check me before he left the room. She came right back in and checked me - and I was completely dilated! Which is crazy. I'm pretty sure if my water had broken at home and I didn't have an epidural I likely would have had him at home. So I'm extremely grateful that did no happen.

They got the room, and me, prepped and ready to go and we started pushing at around 6:00pm. I ended up pushing for 40 minutes, which I was surprised by, since I had pushed for an hour with Annalise. But as I was thinking about it I also realized that my contractions were spaced out a lot more with Leeland than with Annalise so really I did push a lot less. I definitely didn't feel nearly as tired, and when he came I had not felt like I had been pushing that long. After his head and shoulders came out I got to reach down and pull him up on my belly, which was amazing and so surreal. Birth is amazing. While you know you have a baby inside you, there is just nothing that really prepares you to go from having them in you one second and then having them out and on you the very next.

Actual time of birth was 6:43pm. So everything went so fast, considering my first contraction was 2:40pm! Plus, my favorite midwife got to deliver him before her shift ended at 7:00pm.

I only had a really small first degree tear (praise the Lord!), which was amazing after tearing so badly with Annalise. So after a quick repair, everyone left us so we could have our "Sacred hour," as they called it, to ourselves. Leeland latched on immediately and ate for almost the whole hour. We didn't have that time with Annalise and I so appreciated having that special time with Bryce and Leeland.

Well, that's basically it! Postpartum recovery has been SO much better than with Annalise. I really hardly feel like I had a baby. I've had some hemorrhoids to deal with, but other than that I have felt amazing. I've really had to force myself to lay low and not overdo it, which if anyone knows me, knows that is hard.

Annalise is adjusting well, I'd say. Nana (my mom) has been here since, and will stay until labor day, so I think that has helped a lot. But each day Annalise is more interested in baby brother and wanting him to be apart of her day. She also didn't really want to hug or be around me when we first came home, but she's been wanting to be around Bryce and me more lately, which has been sweet. I'm still nervous about life with 2 kiddos without my mom here, but I'm sure we'll adjust with time. Thankfully Bryce and I both have a good amount of time off work so we get lots of family time in the next few months. After Annalise, Bryce had to go back to work after 1 week! I'm so grateful he gets more time this time around.

Leeland is such a sweet boy and is sleeping better and better each night. He's so noisy though, I'm not sure how much longer I can bare to have him in our room for. He eats so much and I'm sure he's going to pass up his sister in no time. He's pretty content and as long as he's fed is basically never fussy. We're pretty obsessed and in love with him. And I STILL cannot believe I made a child with so much hair. I didn't know that would be possible since both Bryce and me have such thin hair. I am praying it stays, but I'm sure it won't.

Now for some photos! I was so bummed I couldn't have a birth photographer this time around, or someone come to do the newborn hospital photos (because COVID) so Bryce and I did them ourselves. Not professional, but I'm happy with them.

Scroll to the end for a printable copy of my hospital bag checklist if you're interested in that!

The proudest big sister

And sweetest too!

The Hospital Bag Checklist

And now, for those interested, I made a printable checklist of what we packed in our hospital bag! Yes, I know there are 5,000,000 different ones you can get online, but I'm pretty sure none with these exact things on it! Ha! You should be able to right click and save a copy to print, or I'll link a PDF version at the end if you'd rather have it that way.

I'd say the best thing we did this time, that we didn't do with Annalise, was bring a white noise machine. I saw it on a blog somewhere and it helped us sleep so much better to drown out the hospital noise. Highly recommend. Here is the link to the one we have that we used in Annalise's room until we got her the Hatch light. We really like it!

I packed way too much, but I am the kind of person that would rather have too much that not what I need.